West Jordan mayor's a moviemaker, too

It isn't every day that West Jordan's handyman mayor goes to movie premieres.

It's even less often that Mayor Dave Newton goes to movie premieres in his own town — to see his own movie that he produced and paid for with his own money.

But on Wednesday night, one day after spending the evening in the City's Council chambers working on improving West Jordan's roads, Newton drove down to Jordan Landing and sat down to watch his film, "Beau Jest," on the big screen.

Watching his film wasn't usual. But for Newton, who's dreamed for more than a decade about making a movie, it was perfectly natural.

"The crowd was delightful and just seemed to love the movie," Newton said of his premier audience. "They laughed in all the right places. ... We're thrilled about that."

"Beau Jest" opened in 16 theaters across the state on Friday, but now, Newton will have to wait and see how well it is received. The longtime cabinetmaker sold property to finance the film, of which he and his wife, Sandy, were executive producers. Now he's waiting to see if he can snag a national distributor to spread the PG-rated, feel-good family comedy across the country.

"The goal is to get it to a national audience, one way or another," Newton said. "If we can't get a distributor, we'll probably take it area by area a little at a time."

Newton, who received a degree in motion picture and television production from Brigham Young University before starting a career in cabinetmaking, made the film a family affair. His son, Ben, was a second-assistant cameraman, and his brother, Daniel, produced and directed the photography on the movie.

"Some people have said the Newtons are 'impossibility experts,' and I think this is another way of exhibiting that," Ben Newton said. "This is something that not many people would take on, but we did, and I think it has turned out very well. It's somewhat impossible that (my dad) has done it. He does just about anything he puts his mind to."

Residents in West Jordan are also getting involved in supporting the movie. School groups and the Chamber of Commerce have been distributing some 200,000 fliers with vouchers to raise funds for their organizations through the movie.

For every ticket sold with one of the fliers, 50 cents will go to the organization, Newton said. Passing out the fliers is a good opportunity to raise money for the Chamber of Commerce, said chamber president Craig Dearing, but it's not the only reason the group is doing it.

"We're proud of (Newton) and we're proud that ('Beau Jest') is from West Jordan," Dearing said. "I hope it's a very successful movie, and I hope he can make 10 more coming from West Jordan."

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